7 Best Experiential Marketing Campaigns for Millennials

Experiential marketing is all about immersing your customers into a cool and unique experience in order to market to them. For all of my millennials who are interested in experiential marketing here are some awesome campaign examples that would make any marketing naysayer a believer.

1. The Simpson Movie

I know all of my Millennials will love this one having pretty much grown up with the show. In 2007 20th Century Fox and 7-Eleven partnered together for the release of the Simpsons movie. Twelve 7-Eleven locations were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts, which is the convenience store in the show run by Apu. Those locations even carried Simpson’s branded food and beverage products such as KrustyO’s cereal, Buzz Cola, and Squishee frozen drinks. A special edition of a Radioactive Man comic book was created for the locations and life size characters from the Simpsons could be seen inside the stores!

Kwik-E-Mart from Simpsons. By: David Moth. Posted July 28, 2014.

2. Red Bull’s Space Jump

Red Bull gained global attention with its Stratos Jump. Felix Baumgartner exceeded the speed of sound when he broke the record for the highest recorded parachute jump from space! The jump was covered by news stations around the world creating priceless marketing for Red Bull.

Red Bull Stratos Jump. By: David Moth. Posted July 28, 2014.

3. Game of Thrones Dragon Skull

As a millennial and a huge Game of Thrones fan I think this might interest quite a few of my fellow millennials. During the release of Game of Thrones season three, Blinkbox, a UK streaming service placed a huge dragon’s skull on an English beach. The skulls was the size of a London bus and got enormous news coverage i.e. free marketing for the series!

Game of Thrones Skull. By: David Moth. Posted July 28, 2014.

4. Chocolate Surprise

This one is for all of millennials with a sweet tooth. Milka, a chocolate company, did an experiential campaign where they left out a single square from a number of their chocolate bars on purpose. It was enough for their customers to instantly notice the change! The customer was then offered to be mailed the missing piece or send it to someone else with a personal note. Many customers opted out to mail their missing piece to someone else. This campaign really increased Milka’s awareness.

Milka Chocolate Bar. By: Gregory Ciotti. Posted July 2, 2016.

5. Disney’s Doc McStuffin’s Clinic

Many millennials, especially those who grew up in North America have grown up watching the Disney channel and Disney movies. For that reason I think this one will resonate with many millennials.

Doc McStuffin is a hugely popular Disney Channel TV kids’ show. It features a six-year-old girl who heals toys in her imaginary clinic. In order to promote the release of second season Disney set up an exact replica of Doc’s clinic in Tesco, Smyths and Toys R Us in England. Children were given a chance to immerse themselves in a 10 minute interactive experience where they became Doc and could diagnose a “patient”. 8,000 kids took part in this and 75% of them rated it as excellent, which just goes to show the power of experiential marketing.

6. Derrick Rose Jump

This one is for all of you “Sneakerheads”. To support the launch of his new sneakers with Adidas, pro basketball player Derrick Rose filmed a “Jump with Derrick” campaign. Rose was well suited for the campaign because he is known for his incredible jumping ability. On screen he challenged average people to jump and reach a 10-foot tall shelf, which is coincidentally the height of an average NBA net rim. On the shelf were his brand new sneakers. If the person reached a pair of shoes they were given a free pair! What a great example of experiential marketing done right! Click here to watch the YouTube video.

Jump with Derrick Rose. By: Gregory Ciotti. Posted July 2, 2016.

7. WestJet’s Christmas Miracle

Who doesn’t love Christmas? Many of my fellow millennials grew up in a highly saturated marketing environment during Christmas time. With so many different companies competing for your attention one company found a truly unique way to stand out using experiential marketing during their Christmas themed campaign.

WestJet Airlines asked passengers boarding a plane what they would like for Christmas. The passengers enthusiastically offered up their answers and didn’t really give it a second thought. You must imagine their surprise when upon landing and waiting for their luggage they were greeted by a massive line of individually wrapped gifts, one for every single passenger. Their gifts were the same Christmas wishes they recorder earlier. Click here to watch the YouTube video. I must warn you though.. this one is a real tearjerker!